Intradural invasion of chordoma: two case reports.

Chordomas are rare tumors of the central nervous system and primarily occur in the extradural space. We report two patients with intracranial chordomas located in the region of the clivus that invaded the prepontine cisterns. The patients, 45 and 62 years old, had histories of cranial neuropathies and headache, respectively.

Susceptibility-weighted imaging to visualize blood products and improve tumor contrast in the study of brain masses.

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic value of susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) for studying brain masses.

Materials And Methods: SWI is a high-resolution, three-dimensional, fully velocity-compensated gradient-echo sequence that uses both magnitude and phase data. Custom postprocessing is applied to enhance the contrast in the magnitude images between tissues with different susceptibilities.

Randomized comparison of stereotactic radiosurgery followed by conventional radiotherapy with carmustine to conventional radiotherapy with carmustine for patients with glioblastoma multiforme: report of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 93-05 protocol.

Purpose: Conventional treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cures less than 5% of patients. We investigated the effect of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) added to conventional external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) with carmustine (BCNU) on the survival of patients with GBM.

Methods And Materials: A total of 203 patients with supratentorial GBM (tumor < or =40 mm) were randomly assigned either to postoperative SRS followed by EBRT (60 Gy) plus BCNU (80 mg/m(2) Days 1-3 every 8 weeks for six cycles) or to EBRT with BCNU alone.

Permanent iodine-125 interstitial radiation therapy in the treatment of non-glioblastoma multiforme high-grade gliomas.

Background: This study evaluates prognostic factors influencing survival outcomes for 60 patients with permanent iodine-125 implants in the primary treatment of non-glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) high-grade gliomas.

Methods: Stereotactic treatment planning aimed to encompass the contrast-enhancing rim of the tumor visualized by CT, with an initial dose rate of 0.05 Gy/h with 125I, delivering 100 Gy at 1 year and 103.

Gamma knife radiosurgery in patients with advanced breast cancer undergoing bone marrow transplant.

Object: Recent studies have suggested a high incidence of cognitive deficits in patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy, which appears to be dose related. Whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) has previously been associated with cognitive impairment. The authors attempted to use gamma knife radiosurgery (GKS) to delay or avoid WBRT in patients with advanced breast cancer treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation (HDC/ABMT) in whom brain metastases were diagnosed.

Gamma knife radiosurgery for intracranial metastatic melanoma: a 6-year experience.

Object: The purpose of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the effectiveness of stereotactic radiosurgery for intracranial metastatic melanoma and to identify prognostic factors related to tumor control and survival that might be helpful in determining appropriate therapy.

Methods: Twenty-four patients with intracranial metastases (115 lesions) metastatic from melanoma underwent radiosurgery. In 14 patients (58.

Gamma knife radiosurgery for renal cell carcinoma brain metastases.

Object: The purpose of this study was to clarify the effectiveness of gamma knife radiosurgery (GKS) in achieving a partial or complete remission of so-called radioresistant metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and to propose guidelines for optimal treatment

Methods: During a 5-year period, 29 patients (19 male and 10 female) with 92 brain metastases from RCC underwent GKS. The median tumor volume was 4.7 cm3 (range 0.

The application accuracy of the NeuroMate robot--A quantitative comparison with frameless and frame-based surgical localization systems.

The NeuroMatetrade mark robot system (Integrated Surgical Systems, Davis, CA) is a commercially available, image-guided, robotic-assisted system used for stereotactic procedures in neurosurgery. In this article, we present a quantitative comparison of the application accuracy of the NeuroMate with that of standard frame-based and frameless stereotactic techniques. The article discusses a five-way application accuracy comparison study.